Assessments

Portfolio assessments

At the end of the year, students can select work to create a portfolio. Portfolios are a good way for students to survey the work they have done over a period of time, and for the teacher to look at growth across a year’s worth of learning. In addition, the process of selecting work to share in a portfolio can help students take stock of their accomplishments and reflect on their own areas of growth as well as set goals for areas they can work to improve.

Throughout the year, to help students keep track of the work they are proud of, students are encouraged to select a model and an explanation or argument from each unit as the unit concludes. Students should annotate their work, as described below. This process enables students to build a set of candidate work products for the portfolio over time. At the end of the school year, students can then choose from among that more manageable set of work to create their final year-end portfolios. They can use their own notes on their work to make their selections (see guidance below for how candidate work may be annotated). As with any new skill, it is best to provide exemplars as well as scaffolded support for students so they can be successful in compiling their final portfolios.

Students should be given clear goals for their final portfolio: to choose work that they are proud of, and that shows how they have grown over a year. To support this, students should have access to: any scores or feedback on the selected work, the Portfolio Scoring Rubric (below), and the relevant rubrics for SEPs (see Adaptable rubrics for science and engineering practices). Even a piece of work that had a low score initially can be something a student is proud of now, since it can show how that student has grown when it is accompanied by the students’ notes and reflections, or when compared to a more successful product from later in the year. Example reflections are provided for students to use as a reference when thinking about their own work.

Examples for student arguments:

Why are you proud of this argument? What about argumentation would you like to improve on in the next unit?
  • Last time I didn’t explain why my evidence mattered, but in this argument I did.
  • I thought the evidence was hard to understand, but I still tried to use it to write my argument.
  • I think my claim was really clear and my argument was convincing.
  • I remembered to think about my audience and I tried to explain things to them clearly.
  • I want to remember to use evidence.
  • I want to user more than one piece of evidence.
  • I want to remember to explain why my evidence matters.
  • I want to try to refute on of the other claims.

 

Examples for student models:

Why are you proud of this argument? What about argumentation would you like to improve on in the next unit?
  • Last time I forgot to label the parts of the model and it was unclear but this time I added labels.
  • I think this content is really confusing, but in my model I made it clear how all the parts work together.
  • In the model I made in the first chapter I had the arrow wrong, and in this chapter I fixed it.
  • I want to remember to add labels to my model.
  • I want to make sure my model shows all the important parts.
  • I want to include the relevant parts and not the irrelevant parts.

 

Compiling final portfolios

At the end of the year, have students create a final portfolio that shows work that they are the most proud of and how they have grown. Suggest that students begin by looking at the work from each unit that they have selected and annotated, but that they can choose any of their work, they just need to include:

For grades 6-8:
  • 4 arguments that they are proud of and that, as a set, show growth in that practice
  • 3 models that show growth, and that they are proud of
  • Other piece of work of any kind that they want to showcase

Students should describe their rationale for choosing those pieces. They should consider the rubrics and compare the pieces from the same groups across the year to explain how they show growth. Students should also refer to their own notes from their candidate work products to describe how they did or did not work towards meeting their own goals for improving the practice. The following questions can structure a cover page for each set of work products in the portfolio:

  • Which [explanations/arguments/models] did you choose?
  • Why did you choose this set? How do they show how you’ve improved?
  • Did you meet the learning goals that you set for yourself? Why? Why do you think so?
  • What about this set of work are you most proud of?
  • What are some skills you hope to work on next year?
  • What additional piece of work did you choose?
  • Why did you choose it? What do you hope to show with it?